Project management is what turns ideas into finished products. It also provides a way of analyzing your process and finding out what works and what doesn’t. SMART Project Management is broken down into 10 steps spread out over 5 phases.

Substantiation Phase

The substantiation phase involves investigating the central concepts of the idea and develops a recommended course of action. This involves assessing costs, potential risks, and potential benefits.

Step 1: Determine the project concept. Fully define your idea.

Step 2: Develop a business case for the project.

Step 3: Draft a project proposal.

Meditation Phase

The meditation phase is a time to review the project and flesh out the details. This is when the individual steps are determined as well as the broadest strokes of strategy.

Step 4: Draw out the project plan. Include milestones, or high-level projects. The high-level plan should also include major risks and a rough timeline. In a separate plan, set out team efforts, or mid-level projects. This should set out budgets and resource allocation for each team. It should also set out timelines for each team. The low-level plan should describe individual tasks, or low-level projects.

Activation Phase

The activation phase lets your team know that it is time to begin the project. This is phase during which all team members formally assume their responsibilities.

Step 5: Create and disseminate an opening report, which presents an overview of the project and introduces the team.

Regulation Phase

The regulation phase involves periodically assessing the status of the project and making changes as necessary.

Step 6: Put together a status report to update the stakeholders.

Step 7: Assess the project in terms of what revisions are necessary. If needed, create a revision summary as a reference.

Step 8: If the assessment determines that there is a need for a significant change to the scope or budget of the project, create an adjustment proposal and submit it.

Termination Phase

The termination phase is the wrap-up phase.

Step 9: Assess the project as a whole. Create a project summary, which includes a summary of results and a baseline comparison.

Step 10: Create a trigger summary, which documents out-of-scope events. Use it to generate new projects or ideas.

Frank Payne prevents and inspirational and informative lecture in a series of videos on the virtues of project management and why you need to have a project management office in your organization

In this five-part video series, Payne details the five essential elements you need to know about project management offices and why they are worth the investment. These elements include:

– An introduction to project management

– De-centralized project management offices

– Tangible and intangible benefits of a project management office

– How to measure what is important to your stakeholders

– The seven project management warning signs.

For this introductory video, Payne takes you on a journey to show you the value of having a project management system.

As Payne reveals in the video, project management and the offices that conduct it are like mutual funds.

Mutual funds are a investments where money from many investors is pulled together to buy portfolios of different securities. The funds are then managed by professionals who invest the money in stocks, bonds, options, money markets, and other securities.

However, mutual funds can also refer to open-ended investment companies that staffed by those professionals and provide portfolio diversification, greater safety, reduced volatility, and professional fund management to investors.

Both definitions contain the same basic concepts, all of which parallel the basic concepts behind project management offices.

Mutual funds control and reduce the volatility in the market while your project management office controls and reduces the volatile ups and downs of successful and failed projects that may damage your company’s bottom line.

Mutual funds diversify your investment portfolios to optimize them while project management offices diversify and optimize your project portfolio and they are the only management unit that can do this.

Finally as mutual funds are managed by teams of professional investors that work for your benefit, your professional project management office understands how your projects affect your company’s strategic direction and therefore can plan them accordingly.

As Frank Payne shows in his speech, project management offices are sound investments into your company’s future. They help you manage your projects in ways no other organizational unit can.

]]>http://planthat.com/value-of-program-management-video/feed/07 Traits of Successful Project Managershttp://planthat.com/7-traits-of-successful-project-managers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-traits-of-successful-project-managers
http://planthat.com/7-traits-of-successful-project-managers/#respondMon, 05 Nov 2012 13:58:24 +0000http://planthat.com/?p=241A project manager’s job is to take a project from planning through completion. Project managers work in a number of fields, from construction to information technology. The project manager must have a number of skills to get the task completed successfully, on time and within budget.

1. Foresight

A successful project manager must be able to anticipate problems before they endanger the completion of the task. This type of risk management helps to ensure that adjustments can be made along the way to allow successful completion.

2. Communication Skills

Good communication skills are critical to the project manager’s job, because he must not only define the scope and details of the project, he must also stay in close communication with his team to ensure that the work is going according to schedule. Good communication skills are also necessary in working with customers, to provide feedback on changes, problems and other matters.

3. The Ability to Motivate

Scheduling can be critical on many projects, and the ability to motivate team members to do their best work within a time frame is an important part of a project manager’s job. Keeping the team organized and positive about their work can go a long way toward keeping the project on track.

4. Good Planning and Budget Management

The proper timing, sequencing, and quality control ensure that projects remain on schedule and within budget. These tasks are organized with project management software so the project manager must be comfortable working with new technologies that can assist in these aspects of management.

5. Practicality

The project manager must have an acute sense of the possible. In budgeting, scheduling and assigning tasks, the project manager must keep a clear view of the practical aspects of the job, ensuring that he has not built in problems that could cause risk to completion. When problems do arise, the project manager must be flexible to find new solutions to keep the project on track, rather than holding to the old schematic that may not be viable.

6. Empathy

The project manager’s job entails highly-refined people skills with a strong sense of empathy. This trait can be helpful in dealing with customers as well as team members. Good listening skills and an ability to understand intent and motivations helps to eliminate conflicting goals. Part of the role of project manager may be to influence customers to abandon requirements that endanger the overall project. Project managers must also listen and appreciate problems the team members may encounter doing their part of the task. Once problems are properly understood, workable solutions can be found.

7. Vigilance

A successful project manager must also be vigilant to what’s going on in various aspects of the project. He must be able to recognize scheduling and budget problems before they become larger issues. He must also design solutions to these problems and have them implemented by team members quickly.

These seven traits are instrumental for success as a project manager in any field. Developing these traits early in their careers will make the individual a valuable asset to any company with complex projects that need careful attention.

Project managers are a mission-critical part of any business organization. In order to keep projects moving rapidly all the way from idea stage to product stage, project managers need to keep their knowledge up to date and their skills sharp. To learn how project manager training can benefit your business, discover how other businesses are conducting this training and the kinds of result they have seen.

How Most Businesses Train Their Project Managers

On average, businesses give their project managers 6 days of training per year and spend $2,211 per year for that training for each of them. An average of 56 percent of this training is outsourced. The 84 percent of the large organizations, those making $1 billion or more each year, that offer afternoon training spend $1,854 per manager per year on it. This figure is $2,421 for the 79 percent of mid-sized businesses that offer it. The figure rises to $2,435 for 62 percent of all small businesses, those making under $100 million per year.

Training Topics

Approximately two thirds of all organizations that train project managers teach basic project management skills, with similar number teaching avoidance of missed deadlines and professionalism. More than half teach one or all of improving quality, minimizing scope creep, minimizing cost overruns, and reducing project failures. Some also teach such topics as increasing productivity, adhering to executive mandates, responding to the pressures of the competition, and smoothly onboarding new employees during a project.

Businesses reported the best results from having instructors lead the training, and the worst results from having the project managers learn from technology-delivered sources like virtual classrooms or computerized presentations. Many used a blend of some or all of those methods, along with some self study. Few organizations report that self study alone does much good. Most organizations that use these training products and service purchase them from an outside source.

Rita Mulcahy, an expert on advanced project management, on the PMP Exam and on risk management techniques, shares her views on how to approach risk management. To understand risk management, it is important that terminology and definitions be understood.

Project management – The discipline of planning, organizing, securing, managing, leading, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals is known as project management.

Risk Management – An important aspect of project management is risk management. This can be defined as “the systematic application of management policies, procedures and practices to the tasks of establishing the context, identifying, analyzing, assessing, treating, monitoring and communicating.”

Takeaway Points

* Risk management is applicable to all level of an organization. Its underlying principle is to use the planning stage to identify or determine what might go right or wrong and implement strategies to prevent these or to reduce the impact of losses in an uplifting and empowering manner.

* Analyze what is right or wrong, then prioritize what needs to be done in which order.

* Risk management should be viewed as a fun part of management, that shouldn’t have to include complicated factors in order to get started and to be effective.

* The number one root cause of problems that take place on a project is poor communication. The solution to this problem is proactivity. Once you determine that there might be communication problems, you should implement measures to prevent or deal with them.

* Studies show that dealing with a problem takes 100 times longer than preventing it.

The benefits of risk management include:

* Reducing liabilities.

* Protecting people from harm.

* Saving resources.

* Protecting the reputation and public image of the organization.

* Preventing or reducing legal liability and increasing the stability of operations.

Conclusion

An effective risk management practice does not eliminate risks. The important factor is to recognize and understand the project, then prioritize and do something to reduce the impact.

Communication is an integral part of any process; it is important to include effective communication in the planning process. This should include what is to be communicated and to whom. Preventing the problem takes less time than dealing with the problem.

]]>http://planthat.com/risk-management-video/feed/06 Attributes of Bad Project Managershttp://planthat.com/6-attributes-of-bad-project-managers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=6-attributes-of-bad-project-managers
http://planthat.com/6-attributes-of-bad-project-managers/#respondThu, 01 Nov 2012 23:21:08 +0000http://planthat.com/?p=245A bad project manager is a nightmare. He or she is someone who prevents work from getting done, who creates an atmosphere of fear and anger and who hogs all the glory on top of it. You might think that these descriptions have nothing to do with you, but the truth is that being a project manager can lead you straight into one of these tropes very, very easily. If you don’t want to be the person that is being muttered about angrily at the water cooler, make sure that you consider these six attributes you need to get rid of.

1. Anger Every Day

Being a project manager is stressful. There really isn’t an alternative. Your name is attached to the project, and it is very easy to feel like one more small thing is going to tip you over into psychosis. At the end of the day, however, no matter how much you want to tear your hair out and start ranting, you must never do this!. You will not make anything better by getting angry. Smile, find a solution and then go home and take it out on a punching bag. Anger has no place in a project manager’s office.

2. Lack of Availability

If you are a project manager, that means that everyone wants to touch you. Put less shockingly, you are the point of contact for every part of the project, including the people who are not involved with it. If you have ever tried to run someone down who could not be found, you know how frustrating this is. Putting up your email is great unless you are bad about responding to emails. Let people know when they can come to look for you in your office, when they can call you and where you will be. This can make things a lot less trying for your workers.

3. Micromanaging

Micromanaging is a common thing in the office world, and it is easy to see how people get there. It’s a very short jump from asking a team member how they are doing to signing off on their every move. At the most basic level, micromanaging is a sign that you do not trust your team. If they are on your team, they are on it for a reason, so let them do the job that they were hired for.

4. Glory Hogs and Their Eating Habits

One of the benefits for taking on the responsibility of a team project is that your name will be attached to it forever if the project does well. That means that your face and your name are going to be heading the project. When someone gives you a compliment, do some serious name dropping. Let them know who was behind the killer code or the incredible social networking campaign. This is noticed, and it is always appreciated.

5. Clamming Up

If you are taking on a project, you need to be a pane of glass. If you get information, it needs to get out there to the rest of your team. Not only will this help people feel safer and more confident in what they are doing, you’ll find that it will help them create innovations that will improve the project as a whole. No one does their best work when they are in the dark.

6. Ignoring the Problems

If you are a project manager, it is your job to tackle the problems in a project. The issue is that so many project managers seem to think the problems will go away if they ignore them! If you see a problem, whether it is with the project’s structure or a personality conflict, head it off at the pass.

Consider what you can do to weed out these bad project manager attributes. It really will pay off in the long run.

]]>http://planthat.com/6-attributes-of-bad-project-managers/feed/06 Ways to Increase Collaboration on Project Teamshttp://planthat.com/6-ways-to-increase-collaboration-on-project-teams/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=6-ways-to-increase-collaboration-on-project-teams
http://planthat.com/6-ways-to-increase-collaboration-on-project-teams/#respondThu, 01 Nov 2012 13:54:50 +0000http://planthat.com/?p=238If you are someone who is running some projects this year, you might be tearing your hair out when you are thinking about how you can make people cooperate. Cooperation and collaboration are both key when it comes to making a project a real success, and you need to make sure that you are getting people excited about doing so. When so much of work in competitive, think about what you can do to make sure that your project teams get along instead!

1. Skip Meetings That Are Longer Than 1 Hour

If you have broken everyone in to project teams, you are busy. Nothing makes people more frazzled and less likely to cooperate with one another than feeling like they are on a crunch. Keep your meetings short and sweet, and make sure that everyone who shows up needs to hear what is being said. Ideally, a good meeting only takes about 20 minutes, because that’s about when attention spans start to wander. Staying in constant movement rather than stagnating over a meeting is an important part of moving forward with your project.

2. Promote Accountability

One thing that prevents people from collaborating is fear. They are afraid that if they go along with something, they will be at risk. Thus, it is always in your best interest to promote a policy of accountability. Let everyone know that they should let you know as soon as a mistake or error has been made. Remember that people are more inclined to be accountable if they feel safe. Remind them that mistakes happen, and that the most important thing is going to fixing the issue, not punishing the person who reports it.

3. Mediate Conflicts

If you are someone who is invested in making sure that a project goes smoothly, you need to think about conflicts. No matter how much people want the same thing, there will be many different ways of getting there. Maintain an open door policy when it comes to handling conflicts and make sure that a solution has been reached before the two conflicting parties leave. In some cases, having the matter brought to your attention is enough; simply let the feuding parties know that they need to respect each other and work it out. If they cannot, they need to trust you to come to a resolution for them. Handling a conflict before it blows up can make a huge difference to how well your projects move forward.

4. Be Honest and Promote Honesty

When you want to make a project work, you are not going anywhere without being honest. People work best when they have all the information. You may want to restrict information because you feel it is unnecessary, or you may hold it back because you worry it will reflect poorly on the company, but the truth of the matter is that this is something that you should avoid at all costs. Being honest with your employees means that they will be honest with you. Be blunt if mistakes were made, talk to your employees about how it is going to affect them and remember that you would want to be treated in the same way. More honesty in the workplace leads to projects that can be finished with significantly more ease.

5. Skip the Team Building Exercises

Remember that time is money, but more than that, time is something that your employees need. There are too many offices out there who waste their time on team building exercises that simply leave people feeling irritable and embarrassed. If you want to run a team building exercise, schedule it for non-working hours and make sure that people get paid. This is far better than cutting into their productivity. Basically, if you really feel that a team exercise is worth it, you’ll be willing to pay for it.

6. Encourage People to Work Independently

One of the worst things that a project can suffer from is micromanagers. The people who are on your team are on it for a reason, and that means that you should consider them competent in their own right. Let them handle their own issues, even as you let them know that you will be there to back them up. You cannot go into a team project believing that your team is incompetent. Let them solve their own problems, though remind them that they might be called to justify what they did later on. Remember that at the end of the day, simply being reasonable can help you move your project towards its conclusion much more effectively.

If you are ready to undertake some team projects, don’t let be left behind when crunch time comes. A team project can be a real beast to get underway, so be ready for all problems and trust your team!

]]>http://planthat.com/6-ways-to-increase-collaboration-on-project-teams/feed/05 Steps to Avoid Groupthink on Your Teamhttp://planthat.com/5-steps-to-avoid-groupthink-on-your-team/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-steps-to-avoid-groupthink-on-your-team
http://planthat.com/5-steps-to-avoid-groupthink-on-your-team/#respondWed, 31 Oct 2012 16:16:47 +0000http://planthat.com/?p=235Groupthink is a major obstacle in many project teams. You do not want everyone on the team to start thinking alike. Groupthink hinders a team’s ability to discuss new information, make project adjustments, and reach effective solutions. Group members try to agree with each other to keep team dynamics friendly or to impress the boss that they agree with him or her. An effective project manager needs to take steps to avoid Groupthink within a team.

1. Risk Management and Mitigation

A project manager should put Groupthink risk management and mitigation in their risk management planning. By taking a firm stance on this potential obstacle before it happens, the team leader can watch and manage it if it appears. Routine check points throughout the project allows the PM to step back and see if this problem is coming up. When it does, a risk plan allows the project manager to take steps to mitigate it and cut its impact.

2. Outside Perspectives

Groupthink is not always easy to spot. A long meeting may end up with a group consensus or with some differing opinions. Those meetings with a group consensus may happen due to group agreement or due to group dysfunction. Bringing in people from the outside at different points in the process can help break the Groupthink barrier. An external perspective can highlight potential problems, find solutions, and make the team dynamic healthier in the long run.

3. Always Go for the Second Solution

When a project team comes up with a single solution, the pressure is on for everyone to agree with this option. When a project manager challenges the team to come up with a second solution as well, that pressure is off. The PM can ask for the second solution with the idea that upper management may reject the first one. By allowing the project team to work through a second solution, it can open up thinking and bring new information into the decision-making process. In the end, both solutions can benefit from the additional information.

4. Request Alternative Perspectives

The openness of a team’s dynamic stems a great deal from the openness the leader of the team encourages. A project manager who works to get alternative perspectives from their team members keeps the open dialogue going. People tend to shape their words around what they think others want to hear. If the boss wants to hear X, then many people will give them X, without any Y or Z added. If a boss asks for alternatives to X, this encourages people to talk about Y or Z, or even A, B, or C.

5. Structure the Team Properly

When possible, a project manager should structure a project team with people from diverse backgrounds. In some cases, the PM has no real say in team members. However, when that opportunity arises, a good team leader will want people with different skill sets. Having people with different backgrounds offers a wider field of perspectives from the beginning of the project. When all the members of a project team are from the same department, it will severely hamper the ability to get different options on the table during discussions and decision-making. Groupthink will come naturally to a homogeneous group.

To sum up, it is important to plan how to get around Groupthink from the beginning of a project. Risk management can help, but choosing diverse team members will also help in this effort. Encouraging multiple solutions and alternative perspectives helps to keep discussion and thinking flowing. Avoid Groupthink and keep your project going strong.

]]>http://planthat.com/5-steps-to-avoid-groupthink-on-your-team/feed/0After the Assessment – 3 Steps to Take a Project from Concept to Completionhttp://planthat.com/after-the-assessment-3-steps-to-take-a-project-from-concept-to-completion-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=after-the-assessment-3-steps-to-take-a-project-from-concept-to-completion-2
http://planthat.com/after-the-assessment-3-steps-to-take-a-project-from-concept-to-completion-2/#respondTue, 30 Oct 2012 15:08:08 +0000http://planthat.com/?p=218Project managers and project teams are often faced with delivering a product within a timeline and with a certain amount of funding. The time to complete a project may be the deciding factor with many of the team’s decisions. The budget of the owner may determine what is worked on and how much attention can be placed on that particular request. Having a good project management strategy, however, can never be replaced. The following is an effective project strategy that may be implemented after the assessment of needs for the particular project:

The project initiation

The project planning

The project execution

The Project Initiation

The project initiation phase of any management team can involve a project proposal and the analysis of a business case. The case can be one that is similar to the tasks at hand. It should include a feasibility study, describing the jobs that should be done in order to complete the endeavor. The charter for the job should delineate any specifics that need to be addressed. The charter may include a checklist and, also, a required phase review form. Being accountable for each successful completion should be a critical requirement for any team.

Any initial reviews should allow for any problems that arise. These problems may include a scarcity of resources relating to assembling the initial project team. Locating the correct people is more difficult that can be imagined. The selection of the right team members may become even more difficult as a project is seen as difficult or longterm.

Coordinated leadership is essential. It may be that the project takes on too many leaders. When this happens, the project atmosphere may become disjointed, at the least. A lack of consensus regarding project objectives is not uncommon. There needs to be a clear plan about what the project is producing. Rapid prototyping is sometimes used to integrate a team, since a concrete concept may be easier to coordinate around.

Project Planning

Project planning may involve a resource and financial plan. A quality plan is essential, and this type description should, also, include a risk plan. How the project is accepted is critical, as well as a communications outline. The procurement and tender management of the project are essential for its successful completion. A statement or work may be used, as well as a request for information. The suppliers can send a proposal for the work to be completed. The supplier contract is, then, signed and delivered. A tender register may be in order. A phase review form for planning may make the organization of suppliers easier to keep up with.

The business analysis of any project will include the delineation of project constraints. Alternative solutions and related assumptions often are a part of a task completion. Weaknesses and strengths are defined within the risk identification. This phase will, also, include a stakeholder and customer analysis. These specifications should be top level in functioning.

The concept review is part of an initiation process analysis. At times there may be a need to meet with the team and certain external agencies. A review can provide a forum for information exchange. These types of meetings may be more effective by using a written question and answer session. The contents and structure of a meeting may be driven by the materials generated during the initial statement and analysis process.

Often the atmosphere during this phase is marked by indecision and hesitation. There may be indications of a project team frustration, and the desire of the staff to have the tasks move along. The actual solution may feel like it is never coming.

There may be indications of a management non-commitment. The ideas may feel unclear, and the teams can only provide rough estimates for how much is needed and how long the endeavor will last.

Project Execution

The project execution phase is often the third portion of a project life cycle. The actual building of the physical project is begun and delivered to the customer for signing. This phase of execution is frequently the longest phase in the life cycle. This time frame usually consumes the most energy and the most resources.

To enable and control the endeavor during this phase, a number of management tools can be implemented. These tools help to manage time and cost, as well as quality. Any changes and any risks involved should be assessed. Any issues that arise should be handled quickly and smoothly. These tools can, also, help to manage procurement and customer acceptance of the final product. Communications is frequently a deciding factor with customer satisfaction.

The performance of time management is even more important when there is a certain and imminent deadline. Cost containment is frequently a constraint, and this factor helps to limit certain overtime requests. Quality of performance and quality of product are critical. Without a quality product, the project may be rejected. Any changes that need to be made must be efficiently added or a bottom-line goal may not be reached for the project company. Risk management is essential, as well as any issues that may need immediate control. Procurement is important in order to successfully deliver the completed task. Acceptance of the project is frequently a requirement of a skilled management.

Communications is an element to any endeavor that should not be overlooked. Knowing what the customer needs is essential for any project to be seen as satisfactory. A phase review should be ongoing. Finding any errors as soon as possible is critical. Leaving errors to their own devices is not good management. More over, letting an error alone for any extended period of time could lead to further problems. These later problems are often very costly.

A Critical Eye on the Project

Having a critical eye on any project is essential for its successful completion. Finding problems right away should allow for more free time to perform a superior job for the customer.

]]>http://planthat.com/after-the-assessment-3-steps-to-take-a-project-from-concept-to-completion-2/feed/05 Ways to Control Changes in a Projecthttp://planthat.com/5-ways-to-control-changes-in-a-project/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-ways-to-control-changes-in-a-project
http://planthat.com/5-ways-to-control-changes-in-a-project/#respondTue, 30 Oct 2012 12:59:10 +0000http://planthat.com/?p=197As a professional project manager, your aim is to ensure the successful completion of any of your projects. Part of this achievement involves keeping a close eye on the project schedule and finances, which translate to controlling change requests. If a project’s scope begins to substantially diverge from its original requirements and plan, then the client may be satisfied with the final product, but will not be pleased with the time over-run and budget. In addition, frequent changes can doom a project. Therefore, as a project manager, you need to have a change management or change control procedure in place that will help you to limit project changes and only implement those that are necessary for the project’s success. Below are 5 ways to control changes in a project.

1. Document change requests

From the beginning of a project, it is vital to ensure that every person involved in the project is aware that any request for changes should be documented or recorded in an official change-request form.

2. Review the change requests

Change requests usually arise from seeing the progress of a project in reality. After receiving such a request, it is important to first clarify exactly what you are being asked to do. This will help you to ensure that only the changes that are desirable or necessary are approved. Assess the potential effect of the requested change to the final product. Determine whether it is really necessary. Those that are not will only delay the completion of the project. If the changes will have an effect on other people, it is important to involve them in this process.

Also, estimate the time frame that will be needed to implement the change. Determine its effect on the current project schedule. Weigh the advantages of implementing the change against its disadvantages. Ensure that all this information is clearly documented.

3. Decide whether or not to execute the change

Based on the above review, decide whether or not you will implement the requested change. If not, inform the requester or client of the same, explaining your reasons for the decision. Discuss the next step of action. If you agree to the change, move on to the next step.

4. Discuss the implementation processes with the client

Write down the steps necessary for implementing the change. Discuss with the client the effects of the change to the already formulated plan and budget. Most probably, an extension of the completion date and increase in the budget may be necessary. If additional funds or time cannot be allocated to the project and the requester still wants the change to be implemented, then it means negotiating for a trade-off or compromise with another task with lesser importance or demand.

5. Update your current plan

After you have reached an agreement with the client, it is time to update your current project plan so that it reflects the new adjustments in budget, outcome and schedule following the change. Also, inform all the stakeholders in the project concerning the new changes, its effect on the project, the reasons for implementing it and the expected outcome.